Can I sue the doctor for negligence? 21 Answers as of January 30, 2012

Consult with a qualified doctor as to whether or not such is negligence. A licensed physician in the field that will testify that the treating physician was negligent must be certified to exist within sixty of your action, and then later must be identified. Laywers do not testify and are not doctors. You may be able to find a lawyer who is also a doctor, but I would consult with a qualified physician as to whether or not negligence occurred.

You need expert proof before you can successfully sue any healthcare provider.

Doctors have a duty to treat patients in accordance with the standard of medical care. When a doctor breaches the standard of care there is medical malpractice. To sue for medical malpractice one must be able to demonstrate a harm directly (proximately) arising from the malpractice. Determining the standard of medical care is often a major hurdle in a malpractice case. You should consult with a personal injury attorney who handles medical malpractice cases to evaluate your situation and determine if you have a cause of action.

We caution all potential clients that medical malpractice claims are very difficult to win - few settle and those that are tried are won by the doctor 9 out of 10 times. Those cases which have the best chance for a good outcome for the plaintiff are those where a clear act of negligence, or omission of appropriate care, are clearly apparent in the medical record. You need to have your medical records reviewed by a physician with the same area of specialization, presumably orthopedics, to determine whether medical malpractice occurred. In Colorado you must have this review performed prior to filing a lawsuit for medical malpractice. Since the surgeon chose to forego repair of the tendon until after the healing of the repair of the rotator cuff, I suspect most surgeons will consider this a judgment call and not negligence. There is a two year statute of limitations in Colorado for filing a medical malpractice claim, you must file within two years of the act of negligence or lose your right to do so. Other time limitations may apply.

You would need to ask a doctor. Law requires a doctor's opinion. way to get that opinion is to see a competent attorney who handles med map on a regular basis.

It may be negligence on the part of the doctor, however, additional information will be necessary to make the proper determination. You should consult with a medical malpractice attorney to obtain an opinion after providing more detailed information. Negligence is the breach of a duty of reasonable care. For doctors, negligence is called malpractice. The law imposes a duty on all persons to act reasonably under the circumstances and the failure to act reasonably is negligence. In the present situation, if the doctor knew about the bicep tendon injury and failed to correct it the first time, it may be malpractice. However, doctors have a lot of flexibility and options in their treatment of you because medicine is not always an exact science. The doctor may have known about the rotator cuff injury and only suspected a possible bicep tendon issue as you put in your question. After going in for the rotator cuff surgery, the doctor may have made the determination that the bicep tendon may not need surgical intervention and he may have made the decision that only the rotator cuff repair was necessary to correct your condition. Being wrong does not necessarily amount to negligence or malpractice. Negligence is the failure to do what a reasonable doctor would have done under the same or similar circumstances.

In order to sue the orthopedic surgeon for medical negligence you must prove through expert testimony that the doctor breached the standard of care and that his breach was a proximate cause of injury. In your case, a careful review of the medical records and the operative report would have to take place to determine if there was a reasonable explanation for him not repairing the bicep tendon at the time of the rotator cuff surgery. There are a number of potential explanations for why he did not repair the tear at the time of your surgery so these issues would need to be analyzed. Even assuming that he was negligent in not repairing the bicep tendon at the time of your original surgery, you and your attorney would have to carefully evaluate what harms and loses you have sustained by virtue of having to have a second surgery to repair the tendon. It may be that the second surgery is successful and you recover fine without any ongoing problems and in that case the damages that you could recover by virtue of having to have a second surgery may be insufficient to justify suing the doctor. You should try to find out why the doctor didn't repair the bicep tendon before taking any legal action. If his plan was to repair the tendon only if certain findings existed at the time of the repair of the rotator cuff and he made an informed and reasonable decision not to extend the surgery any further so as to maximize the likelihood of the rotator cuff repair being successful you may have a difficult time proving his judgment was negligent.

Before you can make a malpractice claim in Florida, you have to get the opinion of another doctor of the same specialty that the doctor who operated on you did not meet the standard of care in treating you. An attorney can assist you in obtaining this opinion.

It is necessary in michigan to have expert support for your opinion. The doctor will say that it was a question of judgement rather than negligence. Assuming that you have no worse outcome it is unlikely that you will get any money in this case. Good luck in your recovery.

Only if another similarly qualified orthopedic surgeon is of the opinion that constitutes a deviation from the prevailing standard of care and is willing to sign an affidavit to that effect. That is a prerequisite to you ever being able to file suit, along with a host of other things.

That is a very good question, but not easily answered with the help of an expert medical doctor who can review the records and agree to testify. Doctors win nearly all of these cases any more even when they are negligent, however, unless you send the money to hire an expert who will testify even before you file suit. You need to get a qualified attorney, and there are only a few of us that do these cases, to review it with you and help you get an expert. It sounds like the mistake of not fixing it while he had your opened up would give you a claim but only after an expert reviews it and agrees to testify will you know that you should proceed.